\nQ4 2020 attributable royalty revenue was $21.9 million, up 26% from its year ago comparable period and a new quarterly record.\n<\/p>\n
\nAdjusted EBITDA(1)<\/sup> for the year was $53.0 million or $1.27 per share, down 15% from Adjusted EBITDA of $62.6 million ($1.46 per share(1)<\/sup>) in 2019. The adjusted EBITDA margin for the year was 78%, down slightly from 80% in 2019, consistent with lower total royalty revenue.\n<\/p>\n \nQuarterly adjusted EBITDA of $17.6 million was up 29% from its year ago comparable period of $13.6 million.\n<\/p>\n \nAdjusted operating cash flow of $47.5 million or $1.14 per share increased by 8% over 2019 despite the lower annual revenue, reflecting reduced general and administrative expenses, lower Chapada stream cost of sales and the timing of corporate tax instalment payments.\n<\/p>\n \nQ4 adjusted operating cash flow of $13.5 million was up 43% from the $9.4 million generated in Q4 2019.\n<\/p>\n \nAdjusted net earnings of $14.6 million or $0.35 per share(1) <\/sup>compare to $23.4 million or $0.55 per share in 2019, with the main adjusting items for 2020 being non-cash based carrying value adjustments.\n<\/p>\n \nAdjusted earnings of $7.4 million in Q4 2020 or $0.18 per share compares to $5.0 million or $0.12 per share in Q4 2019.\n<\/p>\n \nThe full table reconciling adjusted net earnings per share to net earnings per share is included below.\n<\/p>\n \nThe project generation business contributed $6.7 million during the year from the sale of equity positions (net of cash reinvestments). These net proceeds are not included in the adjusted operating cash flow amount reported above as these are classified under \u201cInvesting Activities\u201d within the Corporation\u2019s consolidated statement of cash flows.\n<\/p>\n Capital Allocation Summary<\/b><\/p>\n \nThe Corporation\u2019s capital allocation priorities are linked to its strategy of creating per share value growth through a portfolio of assets that relate to long life, high margin operations while providing growing shareholder capital returns.\n<\/p>\n \nThe strategy is further defined by an investment focus towards several major sustainability-related global macro trends including the electricity generation transition from fossil fuel to renewables, transportation electrification, reduced emissions from steel making and increasing agricultural yield requirements. These trends hold the potential to cause demand surges for many of Altius\u2019s commodity exposures including copper, renewable based electricity, several key battery metals (lithium, nickel and cobalt), low-impurity iron ore, and potash.\n<\/p>\n \nThe main use of cash in 2020 was a $67.6 million investment in renewable royalties through then private subsidiary Altius Renewable Royalties Corp. (\u201cARR\u201d). Subsequent to year end, ARR completed a $100,100,000 initial public offering of common shares and on February 26, 2021 commenced trading on the TSX under the symbol \u201cARR\u201d. The proceeds from the IPO will be used by ARR to fund additional renewable energy royalty focused investments.\n<\/p>\n \nThe Corporation made scheduled debt repayments of $20 million in 2020 and paid cash dividends of $7.9 million to its common shareholders and $5.0 million in distributions to its preferred security holder. The Corporation also repurchased 644,400 shares at a cost of approximately $6.1 million compared to 802,000 shares repurchased at a cost of approximately $9.3 million in the prior year. It ended the year with 41,477,653 shares outstanding for a 1% decrease relative to year end 2019.\n<\/p>\n Outlook and Guidance <\/b><\/p>\n \nThe Corporation has decided to revise its guidance practice from revenue based to production volume-based summaries of the disclosable information it gains from its underlying operators. We will no longer be including a price realization component to our estimates going forward as these are inherently volatile and therefore introduce unreliability to revenue based estimating. A table that summarizes the production outlook is available as part of the Q4 2020 conference call presentation on the website at www.altiusminerals.com<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n Portfolio Performance<\/b><\/p>\n Base metals (copper, nickel, zinc and cobalt)<\/b> revenue accounted for 40% of total revenue (37% 2019).\n<\/p>\n \nChapada revenue was 13% lower than 2019 revenue due to lower volumes, partially due to an electrical system failure in September that reduced milling capacity, but which has since been repaired. Despite a sudden decline in realized copper prices in the first half of the year, prices recovered in the second half and full year realized copper prices were slightly higher than in 2019.\n<\/p>\n \nRevenue from the 777 mine was 10% higher year over year reflecting improved average copper prices and the mining of high-grade copper stopes in the fourth quarter, which partially offset the lower volumes that resulted from a suspension of production after an equipment failure within the production shaft in October.\n<\/p>\n \nVoisey\u2019s Bay royalties were down 19% from last year, as the mine was placed on care and maintenance for much of the Q2 to Q3 period as a result of COVID-19 related precautionary measures. When production resumed it coincided with a period of improved nickel prices.\n<\/p>\n \nFirst royalty revenue from the Gunnison in-situ leach copper operation owned by Excelsior Mining Corp. (\u201cExcelsior\u201d) was originally expected in 2020 but was delayed due to COVID-19 precautionary measures and a slower than expected startup. Excelsior announced it had produced first copper cathode production on December 21, 2020. It subsequently announced that a total of 90,000 pounds of copper cathode were sold and that it expected to reach Phase I nameplate capacity rate of 25 million pounds per annum sometime in 2021. Altius holds a 1.625% gross sales royalty on the Gunnison copper project.\n<\/p>\n Potash<\/b> royalty revenue accounted for 22% of total royalty revenue (21% in 2019).\n<\/p>\n \nFor the year ended December 31, 2020, revenues were down 12% as compared to 2019 on lower annual average realized pricing. Fertilizer markets strengthened sharply in the fourth quarter of and global prices have continued to move upwards in the new year to recently approach a multi-year high. Volumes were up 3.7% year over year, although Q4 volumes were lower than the prior two quarters of the year due to annual maintenance at Rocanville.\n<\/p>\n Iron ore<\/b> royalty revenue accounted for 13% of total royalty revenue in 2020 (20% in 2019).\n<\/p>\n \nDividends received from Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Corporation (\u201cLIORC\u201d), which serves as a pass-through vehicle for royalties and equity dividends received from the operations of the Iron Ore Company of Canada, totaled $3.05 per LIORC share, as compared to $4.00 in 2019. The decrease in total revenue received reflects both the lower dividend and a reduction in the Corporation\u2019s shareholding level relative to 2019.\n<\/p>\n Thermal coal<\/b> royalty revenue accounted for 20% of total royalty revenue in 2020 (16% in 2019) largely owning to an increased interest in LP based royalty ownership. The acquisition of additional royalty partnership units from Liberty Metals & Mining Holdings LLC announced on July 27, 2020 for a net cost of $9.0 million resulted in incremental revenue during 2020 of $4.0 million.\n<\/p>\n \nThe following tables summarize the financial results and attributable revenue for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018:\n<\/p>\n
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